Reporting with HEPCAT toolkit

About

The Reporting with HEPCAT toolkit provides you with the information you need to report your data to the Higher Education Information Management System (HEIMS).

HEPCAT is the acronym for the "Higher Education Provider Client Assistance Tool". It is an application provided by the department for approved higher education and VET providers to use in order to prepare, validate and submit data to HEIMS.

HEPCAT Release 23 is now available. If you have not yet installed this version and the prerequisites please follow these detailed installation instructions.

If you have already installed HEPCAT previously and just need to update the application please follow these instructions to install this application update.

Getting started

To report data and use the HEIMS environments, you will need a Windows operating system and Windows Internet Explorer. You will also need a broadband internet connection with at least 512 KBps upload/download speed. For details about HEIMS applications and the specific system requirements please see Environment Requirements to Access HEIMSon the Systems and access page.

All users musthave their own logon ID and password. You cannotuse a colleague's logon ID and password to use HEPCAT. To request access you will need to complete and submit the Access to HEIMS applications form.

Installing HEPCAT

Administrator privileges are required to install HEPCAT. If you do not have this level of access to your computer, you will need to arrange installation of HEPCAT with your IT support team.

HEPCAT is installed onto the C drive of your computer.

There are two types of HEPCAT installation:

installing HEPCAT for the first time

updating to the latest version of HEPCAT

There are some differences between these two processes so it is important to follow the instructions for each type of installation.

Installing HEPCAT for the first time

To install HEPCAT to your computer for the first time you will need to first download and install the HEPCAT prerequisites. This is a package of software that enables your computer to run HEPCAT. It includes SQL Server 2005 Express and the Microsoft .NET Framework.

Updating to the latest version of HEPCAT

HEPCAT is updated from time to time, when new functionality or reporting requirements are released or a technical issue is corrected. This toolkit is kept up to date with the details of the latest releases. You will also be informed about any new releases via the HEIMS data collections eNews. When you log on to HEPCAT you will also receive an automated message if a later version of the application is available.

While you can prepare data using an earlier version of HEPCAT, you will always need to install the latestversion to be able to submit your data to the department.

Order of reporting in HEPCAT - an easy way to save you time

To simplify the validation and submission of your files we recommend that you prepare and report your VET and higher education student data in the following order. This is because the data in your student submission is checked against information in your course or VET course submission and your HELP Due or VET HELP Due file. By reporting in this order, it will help to minimise your validation errors and reduce the time it takes to prepare and submit your data.

How to create a HEPCAT data file from an Excel spreadsheet

To import data into HEPCAT your data must be in a flat (or text) file format. If your data is in an Excel spreadsheet this guide explains how to convert the data in the spreadsheet to a flat file format that can then be imported directly into HEPCAT.

What's next?

Knowing how to use HEPCAT is an important part of being able to report successfully. But it is not all you need to know. Our toolkits, data requirement pages and other resources in HEIMSHELP will help you to report and verify your data on time.

In particular the Validating your data toolkit provides information about how to successfully validate your files in HEPCAT and HEIMS.

After you report your data successfully in HEPCAT we suggest that you check your data using the HEIMS Online reports. The Checking and verifying your data toolkit provides details about the HEIMS Online submission and Data View reports and how to use them.

Release Notes

When there is a HEPCAT release there is also a HEIMS system release, to ensure that changes to HEPCAT are reflected in HEIMS.

Release notes are published for both HEPCAT and HEIMS after each release. The notes include full details about any new functionality or modifications to existing functions that occurred in the release. This includes all validations which have been introduced or modified.

HEPCAT Release notes

The latest version of HEPCAT, Release 23 was issued on 24 November 2016.

Previous Release notes:

Related Resources

Training

Training is offered throughout the year and you may register on our Training page and via our eNews. Our training page also hosts training videos and recorded webinars on many key topics, which may be viewed at any time. We also offer webinar or face to face training tailored for your team or your organisation.

We recommend that you review our training page and mark the dates of webinars that are relevant to you on your planning calendar.

Contact us

If you need advice about getting started like planning your reporting calendar and training or any questions on reporting data or using HEPCAT, HEIMS Online or HEIMS Administration systems please contact us.